Korean Dance Festival 2020, The Place online

The Festival of Korean Dance can be accessed through The Place website
The Festival is on Wednesday 2 to Saturday 5 December and available to stream free afterwards

Over its previous two editions, the annual Festival of Korean Dance, a collaboration between The Place and the Korean Culture Centre in London, established itself as an unmissable cultural event.

This year, owing to Covid-19 restrictions the Festival migrates online, but retains the variety and vibrancy that have come to characterise it. Here's a selection of the main events of the coming Festival:

Korean Dance Now is a set of four documentaries focusing on female choreographers, filmed over the past couple of months and available for 30 days after first broadcast:
Yoon Jung Bae: the hidden contributor to the K-pop craze delves into the world of the choreographer behind some of the high-octane dance routines of K-pop's biggest bands. It features rehearsal footage from the dance studio, clips for K-pop videos, and interviews with Bae.
Launching on Wednesday 2 December

Jin Yeob Cha: an artist that crosses time and space follows one of South Korea's most celebrated dancers and choreographers, the founder and artistic director of Collective A.

The film shows her preparing for a new online show, within all the constraints imposed by the Covid pandemic.
Launching on Thursday 3 December

Sung im Her follows the London-based choreographer, maker of the hit show Nutcrusher (pictured top) seen at The Place in 2019. The film documents the genesis of her new work, Percolate, created during the current pandemic in collaboration with the photographer Rachel Cherry and Siobhan Davies Studio
Launching on Friday 4 December

A documentary on Bora Kim's unusual performances offers an in-depth look at the choreographer's personal life and work, and follows the creation of her new online work, The Body, Reset to Zero.
Launching on Saturday 5 December

Korean National Contemporary Dance Company performs its 20-minute show, Beyond Black, exploring artificial intelligence (AI) and asking whether it will ever match the complexity and emotion of human dancing.

For the full Festival of Korean Dance 2020 programme, consult The Place website